Flowers and candles are seen at a makeshift memorial outside Silver Rail Elementary in Bend, Ore., Friday, Oct. 16, 2026, a day after a deadly shooting. (AP Photo/Joe Kline)

Few mass shootings in the U.S. end like the deadly attack on an Oregon elementary school: with an armed civilian opening fire on the gunman.

President Donald Trump joined others Friday in praising a father of two girls who confronted a teenage gunman during the attack at Silver Rail Elementary School, which killed three students and a teacher. Kenda Freeman said her son, Kaylub Giamanco, intervened by firing his own weapon after the shooting began at his daughters' school in the town of Bend.


 It's a terrible thing, but thank goodness for a man that had a gun and knew how to use it,  Trump told reporters at the White House.

Giamanco, a 36-year-old carpenter who had a .40-caliber pistol legally stored in his vehicle, entered the school, heard shots and fired his gun after seeing a teacher fighting with the shooter, Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz said.

Cases like the Oregon intervention remain rare, according to the Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training Center at Texas State University.

The ALERRT center tracked what it calls  active attack  incidents where the perpetrator used firearms, blades or vehicles from 2000 to 2025.

Out of 634 cases studied, 374 ended before police arrived. Among those, 29 ended when armed civilians shot the attacker. In another 31 incidents, civilians subdued the attacker by some other method, such as wrestling them to the ground or removing the weapon.

 They recognize they may be the only way to stop it before law enforcement arrives,  said James Keith, a spokesperson for the center.

The heroic  good guy with a gun  who can stop an attack even before law enforcement can arrive has long been a rallying cry by gun rights advocates, arguing that armed citizens can act as a first line of self-defense and public protection. In some cases, the person who intervenes has had law enforcement or military training. Other times they are just people who reacted in a 
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